Factors Affecting Improvement of Engineering Properties of MICP-Treated Soil Catalyzed by Bacteria and Urease
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 12
Abstract
Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is one of the potential methods for improvement of engineering properties of soil. A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the influence of various factors on engineering properties of MICP-treated soil catalyzed by bacteria and ureases. Some of these factors include bacteria concentration, urease concentration, cementation media concentration, reaction time, type of sand, and curing conditions. The experiments of MICP catalyzed by Sporosarcina pasteurii and urease were conducted in similar conditions. The soil samples were prepared with full contact flexible molds (FCFMs). The results of unconfined compression test show that the experimental factors (bacteria/urease concentration, cementation media concentration, reaction time, and type of sand) have a significant impact on the MICP process and engineering properties of sand treated by both bacteria and urease, whereas the curing conditions has a small effect. The unconfined compression strength (approximately 1.76–2.04 MPa) of bacteria treated samples is almost (approximately 0.33–0.43 MPa) that of urease treated samples under similar urease activity. The MICP process catalyzed by bacteria is much more effective than the process catalyzed by urease in terms of engineering soil properties improvement.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1039502 and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Recycled Materials Resource Center (RMRC). The first writer acknowledges financial support from the China Scholarship Council under Grant No. 2011640038. Dr. Paul Allison and Stacy Holton at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research Development Center helped with the SEM analysis.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 12 • December 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2013
Accepted: Dec 27, 2013
Published online: Jan 2, 2014
Discussion open until: Nov 23, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2014
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